As "Independent Professionals" a.k.a. "You do everything Yourself" you may have times where things are moving a bit quickly, and you may make a mistake or two along the way. Some mistakes may be more critical than others depending on your model of the world, and if you are like most people, you probalby take more pride in being right than being wrong.
I recently had the pleasure of making a mistake of the worst kind. I accidently charging a client 500.00 instead of 50.00, which to me is a Big-Time No No! When I realized what happened, I could have blamed the 'person who does that for me', the credit card processing company, or my computer for having a sensitive keyboard, but that only makes it worse. You need to accept responsiblity for everything you do, no matter how badly you feel when you mess up.
If you find yourself in a simular situation, I have found that it is best to say, "I screwed up, and it is completely my fault". No need for long explainations, just take total responsiblity. Then figure out what you can do to make up for the error, and follow through with the customer to make sure you have done all you can to fix the problem in their mind.
The nice thing is, you won't need have multiple meeting with a committee or get approval from your supervisior of boss to bring the issue to resolution. Do what you think is right, and do it quickly, and you may find that the biggest mistake you can make is not when you make it, but it is how you handle it when you discover it.
Thanks, Kirsten, for another great post. I couldn't agree more - and I'd go even further! It's so rare that mistakes are handled well (i.e. in the way you describe, without lots of ass-covering!) that our customers are often delighted to have a different experience. Hence a mistake, which could have cost you a customer, has the potential to become a great investment in the relationship. And when they tell all their friends how great you were, that's a whole host of potential new customers, right? It's all good...!
Posted by: katetrafford | May 28, 2008 at 02:58 PM